Bart McPherson Weblog

I originally posted this on Slashdot December 19, 2003

The Washington Post is reporting that the White House and other agencies are change/removing online documents that can make them look bad.

How are the Google cache’s being removed?

Information everywhere, but what part of it is true?

I don’t know the original date this was published, but I think it was in ‘97 and it was cold outside (7 months out of the year in CLE).

I was suprised to see the URL in the article is still active.

Buck-O-Nine rocks the Euclid Tavern

Last Wednesday, the Euclid Tavern was swept up in the flow of the new ska revival when the San Diego band Buck-O-Nine performed. The half-capacity crowd was true Buck-O-Nine fans. They danced to the band’s more popular songs, and some even sang every lyric right along with the band.

The punk influenced band had one of everything necessary to be considered a ska band. The line-up consisted of a guitar, bass, drums, sax, trumpet, trombone, and a front man dedicated just to singing. The horn section, besides providing puctuation to the melody, was the epicenter for the aerobic work the dancers in the crowd got. The guitar, bass, and drums provided a steady foundation for the speaking-cadence style singing of front man Jon Pebsworth.

The band’s one hour set consisted of songs from their earliest album to the newest one. The young crowd either didn’t recognize, or didn’t care for, some of the covers the band threw in — including The Clash, Musical Youth, and especially Joe Jackson’s “I’m The Man.” The one song they did catch was from Operation Ivy, the band whose breakup gave the world two members of Rancid.

Though this band seems to have done their old school homework, the new wave of faux-ska has bittered the milk of any possibility they might have of gaining a main stream audience. Their sound gives props to the bands who came before them — you can hear a lot of influences, from The Specials, Madness, and The English Beat to Minor Threat, Circle Jerks, and The Ramones. Unfortunately, that seems to be about all the band is - a mishmash of other band’s styles. They don’t have anything new to offer.

If you like ska, and need something new to bop around with while doing the dishes, this is your band. Besides that, they’ll just be another band that is left on the sidelines, ignored by the hypnotized No Doubt bandwagoners.

Check out Buck-O-Nine’s website http://sdam.com/artists/buckonine/index.html

Published November 6, 1997.

Note: I did not get to choose the article titles.

Elvis isn’t the only best thing out of Memphis:
The Grifters show their stuff on newest release Full Blown Possesion

When you think of Memphis, what’s the first thing that pops into your head? Elvis? Graceland? Well, forget that dead hip-shakin’ fool and his museum to over-indulgence. The Grifters, a quartest from Memphis, Tenn. that have been together for more than eight years, have released their new album, “Full Blown Posseesion,” to much critical praise. It seems being isolated in Memphis from all the other indie bands out there has given The Grifters a unique sound of their own.

The band, consisting of Stan Gallimore, Tripp Lamkins, Dave Shouse, and Scott Taylor, plays a fractured, off-balance type of rock. Their album is very unpredictable. It moves its sound from searing and crunching guitars to acoustic pseudo-psychedelic country to funkified danceable Goth-pop.

The songs fit together to tell a sort of country blues tale of life in hell. The album leads off with a swampy upbeat track “Re-entry Blues” that leads you through the stratosphere to some hellishly beautiful destiny. You can hear the evil waiting behind the hen house in the song “Wickedthing.” The instrumental “You Be The Stranger” would be great background music if Matt Dillon’s character in Drugstore Cowboy were transplanted into Pulp Fiction. The song “Fireflies” seems to be from the point of a child realizing everything is out of their control, and everything must go away in the end.

This album has many good singles available on it, but works even better on a straight through listen. All the songs have different structures and sounds, but flow together entirely too well.

To get more information on this band check out the Sub Pop web site at www.subpop.com.

I used to write reviews for the Cleveland State University student paper, The Cauldron. I’m posting them here for my own record.

Cauldron Issue: Monday, November 17 - Wednesday, November 19, 1997

“New Replacements compilation a 10″

The 1980’s were a time when wealth supposedly trickled down from the heavens, while rivers of jellybeans flowed through the White House and record companies held controlling amounts of stock in the hairspray market. The bands emerging out of the post-punk era like Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Fun Boy Three, and The Bangles were starting to overtake pop radio, only to lose out later to bands like Poison, Motley Crue, and Bon Jovi. During this same time a group of restless young men in Minneapolis ere making music about music, pain, love, and angst. The Replacements were a four piece rock band that enjoyed, and some how survived, one beer-soaked decade, playing to fans across the U.S.

Reprise Records, the label The Replacements were on after Twin/Tone, has found it time to release a sort of greatest hits and B-sides called All For Nothing. The compilations producer calls it a collection of would-have-been, should-have-been hits. An example of the travesty to this band is the fact that they only had one song, “I’ll Be You,” break the Top 40 barrier during their whole carrier.

The Replacements have to be one of the most popular cult bands of all time. The Grateful Dead have their faithful legions still today, and so do The Replacements. The difference between the two is that the Replacementís fans are caught up in the music, not the counter-culture escapades of pirate tee-shirt sales people. Replacements fans have even found them-selves being so close to the group through the music that theyíve come to being on an almost first name basis by calling the band The ‘Mats.

Since the break-up after the All Shook Down album in 1991, the members have gone on to do their own projects. Singer/guitarist Paul Westerberg is having great success as a solo artist. He has gained a lot of popularity since his appearance on the soundtrack to Singles. Bassist Tommy Stinson joined the band before he could even drive, has had Mats fans follow him into his newer bands Bash And Pop and Perfect. Guitarist Slim Dunlap replaced Tommyís brother Bob Stinson, is currently putting out great solo albums with Westerbergís help on a couple of tracks. Drummer Chris Mars has put out a few solo albums, but seems to prefer to stay out of the spotlight and concentrating on his artwork which has appeared on the covers of his albums.

All For Nothing picks up on the Mats career after their time on Twin/Tone Records. These years were pretty much straight forward teen angst punk. Albums like Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash, Hootenanny, and Stink brought us song like “Dope Smokin Moron”,”Fuck School”, and “Takin’ A Ride”. The song “I Hate Music” is a great example of the angst in their music, with lyrics such as, “I hate music. It’s got too many notes.”

Signing to a major label hardly settled the band down. Stories from ex-managers in the liner notes tell of the carnage left in their wake. Somewhere in Ohio along Route 80 are the cushions, refrigerator, and table from a rental RV the band ended up having to buy after painting it iridescent green, orange, and pink. Slim Dunlap once told me a story before one of his shows about how they had tried to get kicked off the Tom Petty tour. The band had gotten sick of playing the opening spot to crowds that couldnít care less about them. They wore some of Petty’s wife’s clothes, which they had stolen from his tour bus, as stage costumes. It didnít work so they had to keep on going.

All For Nothing is only a highlight of the Mats’ career. Itís a great starter album for those just finding The Mats. It evenly pulls songs from albums Tim, Pleased To Meet Me, Don’t Tell a Soul, and All Shook Down. It includes rockers like “Bastards Of Young,” “Can’t Hardly Wait,” and “Anywhere’s Better Than Here.” Sentimentals will enjoy the craft behind songs like “Here Comes A Regular” and “Skyway.” The second cd of the set is more for those long time fans who already have all the other albums. It includes songs that most fans knew existed, but had hard times finding. There are alternate versions of previously released songs, never released songs, and live tracks. Interesting songs include Chris Mars’ song “All He Wants To Do Is Fish,” the Bob Dylan take off “Like A Rolling Pin,” and a live version of the Only Onesí infamous song, “Another Girl, Another Planet.”

The two CDs are also enhanced with videos from the band. The band was known for being against music videos. They make their angst very apparent in their vdeo for “Bastards of Young.” It is a shot of a stereo playing the song. The cheapest video of all time has the best comment for the music industry ñ put the music back into radio.

This album has something for everyone. It’s a good tempter for those unfamiliar with The Replacements to go out and buy every single album they made. Those who are already believers now donít have to pay out the nose for import albums with these b-sides on them. I know they couldnít fit every great song on this greatest hits, but I do with they would have been able to include the song “IOU” and early songs from the Twin/Tone days. I’m sure for legal reasons they couldnít put the Twin/Tone stuff on it, but it would have been nice.

The Replacements will always be a measuring stick for bands to come. If you’re thinking about starting a rock band this album is your first lesson in how much you can be under appreciated.

Welcome to the new blog. I’m weening myself away from slashdot (referred to further as /.). I believe /. “jumped the shark” a long time ago. I have met many great people there, and I’m grateful for that. I’ll still lurk a bit, but not much.

I plan using this blog to repost some things I originally posted on /. and to put up things I find interesting.

A little background about me:
I’m a programmer for a manufacturing company that you’ve probably used their product. I use Java, HTML, XML, XSLT, Visual Basic, C, C++, Javascript, and SQL technologies. I am mostly involved in eCommerce. Not the shopping cart stuff on web sites, but the kind between companies (EDI/XML/EDI-INT).
I’m a DJ on WCSB. I have a show on Wednesday mornings, 4 - 7 AM EST. I keep a list of what I play here.